Icy Night
by Elenimou
Summary: Stephanie's last thoughts.


**Tissue Alert. **

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The night was terribly cold as the city was held captive in an ice storm. Delaying taking the trash to the dumpster had caused the home to become unpleasant. I carefully emerged from the apartment and looked back at our window. The tree's holiday lights tree shown through the window, but the ice softened their brilliance on the glass. It was lovely, the first beauty I had seen in several years. My life has been dark. But now I was moving back into the light, and the Christmas lights were the harbinger of better days ahead.

Only six steps down the ice-covered stairway, my foot slipped out from under me. I fell back as my hand rose, tossing the garbage sack into the air. The fall stunned me as the refuse fell around me. How often have I had garbage strewn over me?

Memories started filling my head. Joe Morelli, my on again-off again boyfriend, would cringe each time he saw me after rolling through refuse in back alleys running after skips. I never managed to fit his or my mother's picture of a proper Burg woman. Joe's patience wore out as he moved on, found another woman, and now was a father to a little boy. I was secretly relieved to have one side of my love triangle vanish.

Unfortunately, the second side of my love triangle, Ranger Manoso, assumed I would want the HWC trifecta, husband-wife-children which he would not, or could not provide. We could be special friends, but nothing more. I could never convince him or admit to myself a committed friendship was an acceptable compromise.

While I dithered, death interceded. Ranger died. Not on a government mission, but in an apprehension gone bad. He told me his life was dangerous, and he didn't want to leave someone behind. Marriage or friendship, it didn't matter; his loss was shattering.

Ranger's passing also devastated Rangeman. The remaining Core Team kept Trenton and the other three offices together, but Trenton was failing. Before Ranger died, there was talk about moving out. Now without their namesake, Tank, Bobby, and Lester decided the time had come to leave. Without Rangeman, Harry the Hammer, closed the bonds office. Suddenly I was jobless. Even the much-maligned button factor and sanitary products factory had closed. Also gone were my Grandma Mazur and my mother. Grandma Mazur died from secondary problems after a casket fell on her at Stiva's mortuary. Of course, she caused the fall as she tried to wedge open a locked lid on Johnny Calcavecchia's casket. My mother died in an auto accident, rushing to the hospital when she learned her mother's pneumonia had gotten worse. Without a wife to care for him, my father sold the house and moved to a senior retirement center near Philadelphia. My sister Valerie and family had moved to Milwaukee the year before the deaths. Albert had a new job with his brother in law. Suddenly I was alone.

I considered myself independent until I found myself without family, without a job, and subsequently homeless. In response, I fell apart. Bobby, Lester, and Tank with Lula asked me to come to Maryland to set up the new Rangeman. Hector came to my rescue. He remained in Trenton, choosing to do his Rangeman work remotely while caring for me. He and I share a two-bedroom apartment as I have been working through my grief. Finally, I was coming out of the dark. I agreed to rejoin Rangeman in Maryland. Hector and I were leaving three days after Christmas. A new start for the new year.

The cold was seeping as a light rain fell onto my body, as I lay here on the steps. I needed to pick up the trash I had thrown about and get back inside and take a hot shower. I went to move my arm or leg, but nothing moved. I couldn't pull air into my lungs to call for help. Panic was setting in, I was suffocating. The colored lights from our Christmas tree reflected off the ice coating the handrail. The colors were pulsating. It was if they were trying to deliver a message: Stephanie Plum, you have a problem. Then I heard a voice that filled me with warmth, "Babe."

How I longed to hear Ranger's voice and his name for me. They brought comfort whenever I was in trouble. Though I couldn't move or call out, I knew Ranger was near. My heart pounded in my chest as if it were about to explode. People were wrong. Ranger was dead. He was alive and here with me. My eyes were wide open, looking around. Ranger, where are you?

"Babe, relax, I'm right here. Everything will be alright. We'll be together again. This time forever. I love you, Babe, I have always loved you."

A calmness came over me. Yes, everything will be alright now. All my life's pains no longer mattered. Ranger was with me again. His arms will hold me, chase away this cold, and comfort me. I relaxed.

Hector grabbed the grocery sacks and began carefully navigating the slippery walks leading to the stairs. Trash littered the ground. Had a neighbor decided not to venture outside and instead threw the trash for someone to pick up? Grumbling to himself about the lazy neighbors, he knew he would come out and pick up the mess once he put his purchases away. As he turned to climb the steps, he saw her sprawled on the steps. "Estefanía!" He hurried up the steps the immediately realized she was gone. The freezing drizzle was clinging to her skin and hair, reflecting the colored lights from the window above. The once cobalt blue eyes were open but had already begun to cloud over. Her lips were pulled back to a smile. The first smile he had seen in two years. It was as if she saw something beautiful at her end. He knelt beside her, wrapping his arms across her body and wept. Though the Christmas lights shone brightly from the window, personal light was once again dark. Death was back at his door. First, his sister Angela, then his mother, followed by his mentor and savior, Ranger, and now Estefanía.


End file.
